Bay Area bucket list: 10 (more!) fantastic things you didn’t know you could do

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA - FEBRUARY 05: The Ingleside Terraces Sundial is seen from this drone view in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, February 5, 2020. It was built in 1913. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - FEBRUARY 05: The Ingleside Terraces Sundial is seen in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, February 5, 2020. It was built in 1913. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA - FEBRUARY 05: The Ingleside Terraces Sundial is seen from this drone view in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, February 5, 2020. It was built in 1913. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 7: A life-size cast models of a Pteranodon, top, and a Tyrannosaurus rex are displayed inside the Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 7: A life-size cast model of Tyrannosaurus rex is displayed inside the Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 7: A life-size cast model of Tyrannosaurus rex is displayed inside the Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 7: A garden of big plants by the University and Jepson Herbaria is displayed inside the Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 7: Mandy Aftel, owner-founder-curator of Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, is photographed at her home museum in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 8: A variety of old bottles, including some more than 100 years old, are displayed at Aftel Archive of Curious Scents home museum in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

BERKELEY, CA - FEBRUARY 8: An array of herbs in drawers are featured at Aftel Archive of Curious Scents home museum in Berkeley, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

A lone cyclist arrives at the summit of Mt. Hamilton and Lick Observatory east of San Jose, Calif. on Wednesday, May 8, 2013. The observatory will be celebrating its 125th anniversary. (Gary Reyes/ Bay Area News Group)

SARATOGA, CA - MARCH 27: From left to right, Yukiko Sekiguchi, from San Jose, Yoko Fujita, from Santa Clara, and Rena Washio, from Santa Clara, walk through the gardens in traditional Japanese dress during Hakone Gardens' "Hanami at Hakone," night cherry blossom viewing, at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, Calif., on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

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Whether you’re a longtime local or relative newbie, prepare to be surprised. The Bay Area holds so many hidden gems, you could explore every weekend and still not find them all. That’s why we did some reconnaissance for you! Here are 10 crazy-cool things for your Bay Area bucket list, from a strangely subversive sound immersion to a cherry blossom extravaganza and Venetian gondola rides, complete with O-Sole-Mio-ing gondoliers.

1 Visit a 132-year-old astronomical observatory

A lone cyclist arrives at the summit of Mt. Hamilton and Lick Observatory east of San Jose. The astronomical observatory is open to the public Thursdays through Sundays. (Gary Reyes/ Bay Area News Group)

Perched on the 4,209-foot summit of Mount Hamilton east of San Jose, Lick Observatory is an active research facility that’s owned and operated by the University of California. It’s also a Bay Area icon, providing UC astronomers from all eight universities with world-leading optical infrared equipment since 1888. Yes, 1888. But the public can visit and take in the informative exhibits in the oak and marble-lined main building. Never viewed the cosmos through a 36-inch Great Refractor? Now’s your chance.

Don’t miss: This place is a wonder at any time of year, but during the summer — beginning June 12 — there are evening concerts and lectures by renowned astronomers, too. Tickets go on sale April 15.

2 Ride a gondola — in Oakland

Dreaming of Venice? Oakland is much closer — and it doesn’t flood. Gondola Servicio offers authentic Venetian gondola rides on Lake Merritt, the 140-acre tidal lagoon in the center of the city. The company, which has been around since 1999, offers three types of boats, including a cabin-covered felze, with etched glass windows and Venetian (of course) blinds. The sandolo seats two passengers and is perfect for a couple’s tour. A gondola is larger and can seat up to six. Climb on board, cozy up and sip some wine — you bring the bottle, they provide glassware at no charge — while taking in the colorful sunset.

Don’t miss: Fish. You may spot striped bass or Chameleon goby in the 10-foot-deep water.

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It might seem incongruous that a city known for its fog has one of the world’s largest sundials — let alone that it’s one of San Francisco’s biggest secrets. The elegant, century-old Ingleside Terraces Sundial is built on a traffic circle, surrounded by bungalows and unseen from busier thoroughfares nearby. The gnomon — the triangular device that casts a shadow on the marked plate — juts 26 feet into the air. The Urban Realty Improvement Co., who developed the former Ingleside Race Track, built the sundial to attract new home buyers to the community. The sundial’s dedication ceremony, held the night of Oct. 10,1913, drew 1,500 spectators and featured children dressed as sylphs, one child rising from the reflecting pool, and a stork pulling a baby carriage.

Don’t miss: The dial is surrounded by four stations that mark true north, south, east and west and classical columns, each topped with a bronze vase depicting the four stages of man, the four seasons and the four periods of the day.

Details: The sundial is on Entrada Court, San Francisco. If you visit on the summer solstice in June, the time will be exact.

4 Dare to dream a la Walt Disney

Sleeping Beauty’s castle is just one part of the huge Disneyland model. (Walt Disney Family Museum).

Sitting on a prime piece of land amid San Francisco’s Presidio, The Walt Disney Family Museum is stuffed with glorious treasures that celebrate the legacy of the man who left an indelible imprint on popular culture: shiny awards, artifacts, movie clips, the earliest known drawing of Mickey Mouse and much more.

At the center of it all is a spectacular 14-foot model of Disneyland. It’s not the park that sprouted from 160 acres of Anaheim orange trees in 1955. Nor is it the one that exists today. Adorned with flying elephants, spinning tea cups, pirate ships and a haunted mansion, it’s the perpetually evolving amusement oasis that Disney saw in his dreams. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself gazing at it in slack-jawed wonder while yearning to wish upon a star.

Don’t miss: Coming in May is “The Walt Disney Studios and World War II,” an immersive exhibition that commemorates the studio’s contributions to the Allies’ war effort. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Disney and his staff devoted much of their output to producing training, propaganda, entertainment and public-service films.

Details: Admission $15 to $25 (children under 6 and military personnel are free). Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Monday at 104 Montgomery St., San Francisco. www.waltdisney.org

5 Discover an olfactory oasis

A variety of old perfume bottles, including some more than 100 years old, can be found at Berkeley’s Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, where you can smell 300-plus natural essences. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Enter the world of perfumier Mandy Aftel and transport your nose to a time before petrochemicals. Aftel, a natural perfumier of 30 years and author of five books, runs a small, fascinating North Berkeley museum devoted to natural aromatics and artifacts. At the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents, you can smell 300 essences — everything from Turkish rose and makrut lime to jasmine and cassis — and touch and smell raw materials, like balsams and woods, that have been used to make perfume since antiquity.

Pore over turn-of-the-century perfume books, taste chocolate sprayed with culinary essences (we loved the cardamom) used by Michelin-starred restaurants Coi and Atelier Crenn and sniff the difference between natural and synthetic versions of your favorite aromas. Did we mention you can compare 100-year-old essences to their modern counterparts and sniff the difference between synthetics and their true scents? Mind. Blown.

Don’t miss: Castoreum, the extract from beaver castor sacs, historically used in perfume. It has a great leather note. Also, treat yourself: Aftel sells tiny bottles of her natural perfumes for $52. Her culinary sprays run $18-$32.

6 Bust a move in a barn

Dancers get their groove on at Pie Ranch. (BANG File).

Yearning for a foot-stomping, hand-clapping, booty-shaking heckuva good time? Well, by all means, do-si-do over to Pie Ranch in Pescadero. Every month, the working organic farm and educational center holds a potluck and a three-hour barn dance, where energetic participants get their cardio on under twinkling lights as a six-person band — the County Line Pickers — fiddles the night away. (No need to bring your own hay.)

But if dancing isn’t your thing, Pie Ranch is also a great place for travelers to load up on fresh organic fruits and veggies, eggs, bread, jams, soaps and other locally made items.

Don’t miss: The pies, of course. They feature juicy fillings, along with crusts made with organic butter and Jammu whole-grain flour milled on-site. The pies are baked fresh daily and rotated with each season.

7 Immerse yourself in sound

Dave Shaff prepares for a performance at San Francisco’s Audium. (Courtesy Kim Huynh)

There might not be another concert experience on earth like San Francisco’s Audium, which has been entertaining audiophiles and sonic explorers for more than half a century. It’s tantamount to diving into a world of sounds, as 176 speakers – located all over the walls, floors and ceilings – mesmerize listeners sitting in the dark 50-seat theater. What flows through those speakers is a “sound composition” that combines field recordings – from trains to thunderstorms – with acoustic and electronic music.

“Some people get very meditative in there and let the sounds wash over them,” says Audium composer and director Dave Shaff. “Other people try to pinpoint where each sound is coming from. And then other people just kind of run out screaming. It’s not for everyone.”

Don’t miss: The experience starts a good 15 to 20 minutes before the actual show, with sounds emanating from the box office and a lobby filled with artwork, sculptures, projections and sound. “We are trying to get you in the right frame of mind,” Shaff says, “to experience something different when you go inside.”

8 Observe a life-size T. rex — for free

A life-size cast model of Tyrannosaurus rex is available for free viewing inside the Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

The UC Museum of Paleontology is only open to the public on Cal Day — this year, April 18. But head for the lobby of the Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley, where the museum is housed, any day of the year and you can take a circular stairwell to observe, up close, the largest land carnivore to have ever roamed the planet.

You might think this life-size cast model of Tyrannosaurus rex belongs in a national museum, but instead, it’s here, in the lobby, for anyone to check out. The model is particularly special because its bones — more than 300 of them, excavated in the badlands of eastern Montana — were discovered in one spot with, for the first time, a complete forearm preserved. This allowed paleontologists to make estimates of its strength and function. Look at the pictures next to the exhibit, which reveal just how closely the bones were found together.

Don’t miss: Also in the lobby, check out the long display about human evolution and our ape ancestors. The plants across from T-rex are part of the Herbarium, and they all were around when dinosaurs walked the Earth.

9 Experience Hakone at night

Saratoga’s century-old Hakone Estate and Gardens is one of the most enchanting spots in the South Bay at any time of year, but during cherry blossom season, the 18-acre historic site hosts Hanami at Hakone, with special nighttime blossom viewing. Hanami is a Japanese word for enjoying the transient nature of, well, nature – and it’s usually used in reference to flowers. Hanami at Hakone runs just two or three weeks, beginning around the last week of March, depending on weather conditions.

Don’t miss: More than 60 blossoming trees will be specially illuminated for the occasion. Start in the driveway, where the majority of the trees are located, then work your way back to the tranquil gardens.

Details: Admission is $8-$12. Hakone Estate and Gardens is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekend; special night time hours are 6 to 9:30 p.m. 21000 Big Basin Way, Saratoga; www.hakone.com

10 Dive into imaginative fiction

Dark Carnival bookstore in Berkeley is packed to the brim with sci-fi and fantasy books. (Joan Morris/Bay Area News Group)

Berkeley’s Dark Carnival science fiction store is much like its contents — otherworldly and a bit transformative. Jack Rems has owned the bookstore for almost 44 years. The shop may look tiny from the outside, but inside you’ll find a labyrinth of rooms and passages packed with books from floor to ceiling, and a few cozy spots to plop down and peruse your selections.

Don’t miss: If comic books are more your style, Rems has a sister store two doors down, The Escapist comic bookstore. It, too, has floor-to-ceiling inventory filled with classic and new comics and graphic novels.

Details: Open from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sundays at 3086 Claremont Ave., Berkeley.

Jessica Yadegaran is a writer and editor for the Bay Area News Group's Eat Drink Play section, which is devoted to all things food, wine, cocktails, and travel. She also spent two years in the Pacific Northwest as the food and dining editor for Seattle magazine. Yadegaran has a degree in journalism from San Diego State University and has been with the Bay Area News Group for more than 10 years.

Joan Morris is the pets & wildlife columnist for the Bay Area News Group. She also writes about gardening and is the founder of Our Garden, a demonstration garden in Walnut Creek. Morris started her career in 1978 as a reporter for a small New Mexico newspaper. She has lived in the Bay Area since 1988.

Jim Harrington is the pop music critic for the Bay Area News Group. He began writing about the Bay Area music scene in 1992 and became the full-time pop music critic for the organization's Oakland Tribune in 2006. He is a South Bay native and graduate of San Francisco State University.

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